Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today confirmed that Dota 2 will be free to play and announced the Dota Store in preparation for the game's release.

Upon its opening, the Dota Store will offer items created by Valve and members of the community that may be used immediately and carried over after the public launch of the game. Early Access to the game is not required to purchase items before launch. However, gamers may get into the game now by purchasing the Dota 2 Early Access Bundle of items.

"The opening of the Dota Store is a big part of our final push to launch," said IceFrog, design lead on Dota 2. "With support for the Steam Workshop, the majority of the items made available on day one were created and being sold by members of the community. By making the game Free to Play, we hope to give gamers the ability to decide how - and how much - they want to invest in the game."

Targeted for full release on the PC later this year, Dota 2 promises to take the unique blend of online RTS and RPG action that has made Dota popular with tens of millions of gamers around the world.

Later this summer Valve will host the International Dota 2 Championships 2012 in Seattle, WA. For more information on Valve and its games, please visit www.dota2.com

I'd rather have a stalled and amazing Half Life 3, than a rushed and average game. I think the only reason it's taking them this long is because they actually want to release an excellent game to end the series.

Valve doesn't have a traditional management structure or do things the same way as the rest of the industry. Their employees choose which projects to work on. They have also completely thrown out games and taken a huge loss on manhours and $$$ spent on projects.

Half Life 3 might not come out unless a team of Valve employees feel like working on it.

I'd rather have a stalled and amazing Half Life 3, than a rushed and average game. I think the only reason it's taking them this long is because they actually want to release an excellent game to end the series.

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Funny, I thought the same thing about Diablo 3, waited 12 years and still got a rushed average game, with a story that seemed to appeal to 8 year olds.

You obviously haven't played League of Legends. Same genre of game and it's amazing, Valve most likely had to go F2P just like every other game in that genre simply because LoL is that good, and has the best F2P model I've ever seen. The way it basically works is you Earn IP playing games, that can be used to buy Heroes and Runes. Real World money can be used to buy RP (Riot Points) those points can be used to buy IP boosts (meh not that huge of a deal) characters, or character skins. Runes are the largest IP sink in the game and you can't use RP to buy Runes. And unlocking characters through IP doesn't take that long, but if your impatient you can use RP for it. If Valve follows that model it will be great, basically all you will spend money on is cosmetic items, and spending money won't get you anything exclusive that gives you an advantage.

No one put the free 2 play problem on the table, cheaters !
At least when money was involved the consequences was losing the money, now WTH will happen ? a new steam ID on a new email ?
But who cares, if money flows better (from items,hats and all that bullshit you see in tf2) than when it was a paid game then valve won't care about cheaters or no cheaters, show me the money .

I don`t understand. So is no longer required War3?? What kind of heroes and characters will be??

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All the same, just with different skin, and sometimes slightly different mechanics (like Pudge's Rot, its almost imbalancedly easy to commit suicide in Dota2). No, it doesn't need Wc3 because it uses Source with better clothing animation.

Can't wait for this game to be released, definitely an incentive to get a new rig

I have played more than 1300 games in league of legends and I voluntarily spent $30 on skins and a blank rune page (the latter can also be bought by the free IP you get by playing) and I can tell you it is one of the best if not THE best F2P game out there, valve has no choice but to follow in RIOT's footsteps if they want to succeed.

I have played more than 1300 games in league of legends and I voluntarily spent $30 on skins and a blank rune page (the latter can also be bought by the free IP you get by playing) and I can tell you it is one of the best if not THE best F2P game out there, valve has no choice but to follow in RIOT's footsteps if they want to succeed.

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All Dota style games are "free" anyway (if you count the piracy of Warcraft 3). I personally don't like League of Legends, I find the gameplay a bit "flat" and mistakes are not as punishing as others.

Foxconn Blackops (24 pin connector is loose so power cable has to be plugged in just right)

Cooling:

Thermalright Ultra 120

Memory:

4x 2Gb Crucial Ballistix 7-7-7-9

Video Card(s):

EVGA GTX 570 SC (running below stock due to stability issues)

Hard Disk(s):

1 x 320 GB Seagate 7200 rpm SATA 3 (Very slow)

Optical Drive:

LG DVD-RW 24x (yes, I still use an optical drive)

LCD/CRT Model:

Samsung 24inch 1920x1080

Case:

Cooler Master ATX Mid Tower Something Something

Sound Card:

Diamond Extreme 7.1 24bit (New and the audio out connector is already shot)

Power Supply:

PC Power and Cooling 700 W (refurbished)

Software:

Windows 8.1 (for games)

hrm im intrigued but generally these types of games suffer from nerd competitiveness. what i mean is i want to just have fun and 99% of the other players judge the worthiness of their lives on the outcome of the game.